Just Give Me the Dirt (Day 8)

I am not sure if "Just Give Me the Dirt" will turn into an actual series around here, but it is becoming apparent that our school adventures are going to offer a plethora of blog material! Therefore, a series title allows me to be lazy and not have to come up with a title every time I want to write about school happenings. It also cues you in to what I am writing about on that particular day, and if you are sick of school happenings you can move on.

I know, I know, that's so nice of me. :)

Dinner time is quickly emerging as my favorite time of the entire day. Our wonderful home has enough space that we can put the leaf back in our dining room table, and we can all comfortably lounge around it again. School sedates the girls enough during the day that dinner time is not as insane as it once was (with that said our standard for insane probably looks different than most). The kids have been spilling the beans about all the details of their day (thankfully we learned with Katie's experience at Riverview, that we believe about 50% of what they say, crossing our fingers and hoping that the teachers believe 50% of what our girls say about their home life :) Most nights Mark and I laugh so hard we almost pee our pants. For instance, Lucy spent an entire meal recanting her experience about a 'friend boy' who desperately wanted to be her boyfriend. "Mom, he followed me around the play ground at recess and stared at me all day long. Finally, I  was forced to say to him, 'We are in the first grade, and in our family we don't do love in the first grade!'" To which the boy responded, "You're right we are too young for love!" *high fives all around* A small parenting success on both sides of the coin.

After dinner, Katie and Lucy role-played for all of us the proper responses to a boy's advances. Katie dropped to her knees to be Lucy's height, dropped her voice to imitate the boy, toddled around the living room floor reenacting Lucy being chased at recess, and then they proceeded to have the most hilarious interaction. I told Mark we should have videoed it, it would have gone viral. It included lines like, "If you want to date me you have to go talk to my daddy!" (We are hoping this will keep the boys away for at least another twenty years. :). "My daddy is very big and strong!"(We are hoping this also remains true for the next twenty years) "I tell my parents everything!" (another small parenting victory!) And the one liner that saved her earlier in the day from the unwanted Prince Charming, "We don't do love in the first grade!"
Katie fell to ground with a fake, broken heart. HI.LAR.I.OUS!

In our wee eight days of brick and mortar school, we have already covered the following topics; bullying, racism, and love. WHEW! I am already 911 calling all my friends who have gone before seeking advice and immediate prayers!

Mark and I believe in full, age appropriate disclosure. Each topic addressed with LOTS of honesty. But I have to tell you the way my husband ended the "love" topic almost had me in tears, "Girls, God made it for boys to chase after you. It is a really good, healthy, and natural thing for men to pursue women. It's not gross or bad, the problem is it is just not the right time in any of your lives for you to be chased."  * insert Mama sob*

Mark and I both know that there is potential that some day (30 years from now *wink, wink*) when some boy thinks he is brave enough, (only because is in intoxicated with love), to come talk to Mark about 'being in love' and then the real drama begins ;)!

In the meantime, we are soaking up these round table discussions. Hoping to communicate to our kids that this place, (around the actually square table) is safe, special, and secure.

I sat around a square table for almost 20 years spilling the beans to my family, and to do this day I still love sitting around that table talking with my family about all the dirt!!

So here's to table talking!
~Sara